Hong Kongers who have fled to the UK are being denied access to over £2 billion in savings

Hong Kongers who have fled to the UK on the BNO visa scheme are being denied access to £2.2 billion held in retirement saving schemes by banks, including by the UK-headquartered HSBC, new Hong Kong Watch research estimates.

The research is published as Christopher Hui, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Financial Services, visits the UK. Hui’s visit represents the Hong Kong government’s first official UK visit since the enacting of the draconian National Security Law (NSL), a law which the UK government sees as a clear breach of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration.

Hong Kong Watch has seen several letters from banks to individuals, rejecting their early MPF withdrawal claims based on this guidance from the Hong Kong government to the Mandatory Provident Fund Authority which supervises the provision of MPF schemes.

Ordinarily, anyone leaving Hong Kong permanently is entitled to withdraw their savings held in the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF).

But a unilateral declaration from the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs in response to the opening of the BNO visa scheme in January 2021 to no longer recognise the British National (Overseas) identity has blocked access for hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers.

This retaliatory action has been conducted by fiat with no laws or regulations being changed in Hong Kong regarding the operation of the Mandatory Provident Fund.

The full research can be found here.

Sam Goodman, Director of Policy and Advocacy at Hong Kong Watch, said:

“The Chinese Government’s retaliatory action to no longer recognise the British National (Overseas) passport is designed to financially punish those leaving the territory and is a gross violation of its obligations under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Basic Law.

This amounts to a brazen asset grab that is a punitive measure targeting anyone who has left Hong Kong under the BNO visa scheme and is intended to warn others who are thinking of leaving.”

HSBC

Hong Kong’s population declined by 0.9 per cent in 2022 to 7.3 million, marking the third continuous year of decline amid declining freedoms and some of the harshest Covid-lockdown measures. Over 160,000 people have so far applied for the UK’s BNO visa.

HSBC, which previously publicly supported the National Security Law, has around 30 per cent of the MPF market through various schemes, meaning that it would be withholding an estimated £660 million of assets.

Like all other MPF providers, it charges a management fee for each members’ investment. This depends on the fund chosen by the member, but varies from 0.73–1.45 per cent per year.

Sam Goodman said:

“HSBC is not satisfying its responsibilities as a trustee of the Mandatory Provident Fund. It must explain to its customers why it is blocking access to their hard-earned savings and the UK Government must ask why a London-headquartered bank is doing the bidding of an authoritarian government by failing to recognise a valid government issued document.”